CQC rate overall care as good at Salisbury District Hospital

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has rated the overall care and effectiveness of services provided by Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust as Good following its routine inspection in December 2015.

The inspection team assessed eight core services against the five domains of safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led, with the Trust rated as Good in 27 of the 39 elements. Medical care, maternity and gynaecology, end of life care, and outpatients and diagnostics were all rated overall as Good.

While the inspection team identified areas of good practice across many parts of its services, the overall rating for the Trust was still requires improvement, reflecting the rating given to the majority of Trusts inspected under this new rigorous inspection process.

Peter Hill, Chief Executive for Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust said: “We welcome this report by the CQC which is thorough and detailed and highlights both outstanding areas of practice and aspects for improvement which we have already started to address with our partners in health and social care. “

“I am pleased to see that our patients and staff rate the care at Salisbury District Hospital highly and that the majority of feedback from patients and relatives was extremely positive. The report also says that “staff provided kind and compassionate care which was delivered in a respectful way”, and that “emotional support was recognised and provided”. Our staff also showed great respect for each other and communicated well.”

“I think the culture of the organisation is paramount and the way in which we accept and tackle issues is important. It was pleasing, therefore, to see that the report found a “strong culture of reporting and learning from incidents and that there was a culture of being open, with the duty of candour well understood.”

Mr Hill added: “I also believe that it’s essential that we go that extra mile to ensure that patients who need the greatest support have this at Salisbury District Hospital. The CQC highlighted bereavement facilities and the sensitive care provided by staff to maternity and gynaecology patients and their relatives who experienced a loss, as outstanding. Good support for patients with dementia and appropriate monitoring of patients whose condition had deteriorated were among other positive findings. “

The report did identify areas for improvements and the Trust acknowledges that use of temporary staff to ensure safe staffing levels on wards is currently an issue for the NHS and proactive recruitment is taking place locally to improve this situation. Mandatory training, some aspects of documentation, better linkages with other organisations when dealing with complaints that cover several organisations and the follow up of patients discharged from the spinal unit were among other areas highlighted by the CQC for action. The Trust also did not always receive a responsive service from an external mental health provider team to support patients who presented in A&E with mental health problems. The Trust has already started to address the issues raised in the report and, as part of its formal action plan, will be taken forward further with its partners following the Quality Summit held on April 6.

Peter Hill said: “I know that our staff work hard to provide good quality care for our patients and should be proud of the work that they do for our local community, in what are difficult and challenging times for the NHS.”

“A detailed action plan is in place to continue the improvements we have already started to make in areas identified within the report and we will continue to work closely with our colleagues within the local healthcare system. “

Mr Hill added: “It’s also important that we celebrate the many areas of good practice and the excellent work of our staff which has been identified by the inspection team and we must continue to share this across the hospital for the benefit of our patients, their relatives, carers and our staff - maintaining and seeking to improve on the Good rating for care identified in all core services inspected.”